David Douglas students Lynn Noriega, a junior, and Kristen Gossman, a sophomore, are on the eight-person "Walkout Coalition" that organized the event. They say the group has been working since late February to plan the protest.

"We deserve to feel safe in so many places," Noriega says, "mosques, churches, malls—but especially school. We spend so much of our time there."

Gossman and Noriega were joined by around a dozen student speakers who took turns addressing the crowd from a small megaphone on the steps of city hall.

Protest of gun violence outside Portland City Hall. (Elise Herron)

"This has to end," one student shouted to the overflowing plaza. "We have a chance to change the world, and we're going to vote to take NRA (the National Rifle Association) out of office!"

Other student speakers encouraged peers to engage more with their representatives and on social media to demand gun control.

"There have been 20 school shootings this year and that is way too many," Asher, a Lincoln High School student bellowed into the megaphone at one point. "We want this to end!"

"Who is going to vote in November's election?" another inquired of the jeering crowd—to which one young person said softly to a friend nearby, "My parents."

Protest of gun violence outside Portland City Hall. (Christine Dong)

One parent, Kate Foster, was there with her 11-year-old daughter who walked out of class today with roughly 100 other classmates from Sunnyside—a local K-8 school.

"This is a big deal," Foster said. "I'm just here to support them."

As a handful of city hall security personnel stood idly by, chants like "NRA, Not Today," "What do we want? Safer Schools. When do we want it? Now," and "Turn up the heat," broke out through the crowd.

Gun control protesters at Portland City Hall. (Elise Herron)

At one point, a hush fell over the large group of students as they all raised fists in a short showing of solidarity.

"If every person here acts," a student organizer exclaimed, "we can put an end to gun violence. How many more lives have to be sacrificed? None!"